Rotary Club of Lebanon, NH
Meeting Notes
Meeting called to order by President Ernst Oidtmann at 11:07. A team of the club’s tech experts were laboring mightily to enable our speaker’s slide presentation to appear over our Webex connection.
Members in attendance: Bill Babineau, Phil Bush, Dave Clarenbach, Dave Crandall, Jim Damren, Ed Friedman, Tim Guaraldi, Ahmad Haidari, Ron Michaud, Ernst Oidtmann, Bill Secord, Josh Smith, Marion Steiner, Rich Wallace, Richard Wallace, Cal Wolfe, and John Yacavone.
We sang the “Rotary Welcome Song” and a redacted version of “There Is a Tavern in the Town.”
Anniversaries:
Ahmad Haidari’s 33rd wedding anniversary was Sunday, July 28.
Phil Bush’s birthday is August 10.
Josh Smith’s birthday is July 31.
President Ernst’s medical message:
President Ernst remembers having measles and being quarantined as a child in a bedroom in his grandparents’ home. Measles (rubeola) is a very infectious disease, infectious even more than a week before symptoms appear. It causes a skin rash that appears first in the front of and below the ears and then onto the trunk and extremities, including the palms and soles, eyelids, and even inside a person’s cheeks. It causes a cough and can lead to a fever of 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit). Only humans get measles, like polio. Ernst wonders if measles has again become a serious enough threat for Rotary International to start a campaign to eradicate it worldwide.
SPEAKER:
John Yacavone introduced our speaker, Amy Longmoore, the co-founder and president of Unmask the Invisible.
Amy and her husband, Steve, are the parents of five children, including Sierra, who suffered traumatic brain injury in a car crash in 2020 when she was 17 years old. Sierra was airlifted from that crash to DHMC and was not expected to live. After Sierra had been two days in a medically induced coma, pediatric doctors at the hospital told Amy and Steve to call in a priest to perform Last Rites for their daughter. Because of the crash, Sierra had been one hour without oxygen and had shown no brain activity. A hospital surgeon overrode the original diagnosis and performed surgery in which he took out part of Sierra’s skull to release pressure on her brain.
During Sierra’s time in a coma, Amy started a Facebook Group to provide support for people in similar circumstances. Individuals from all over the world joined the group and provided support for Sierra and her family. When she came out of her coma, Sierra had to learn to do everything all over again—walk, etc. People don’t simply “wake up” from a coma; for a time, they are not very aware of events and people around them. Sierra required 24/7 caregiving. Because of the support she received from all around the world, Sierra wanted to respond by bringing “kindness into the world.” Unmask the Invisible is part of that response.
After a person with a serious injury such as Sierra’s leaves hospital care, gaps appear in the support available. Insurance, for example, stops paying. Even during a patient’s time in hospital, the hospital provides support for the patient and the family present in the room, but not for the rest of the family—such as Sierra’s twin sister and her other siblings. To help meet these needs, after eight months of planning, Amy founded Unmask the Invisible as a 501c3 charity in February of 2023 (www.unmasktheinvisible.org). The process for starting such a charity is daunting: concept development, marketing plan, grant writing. Amy did not want the organization to fizzle out after five years.Unmask the Invisible is designed to provide support for TBI survivors that other TBI charities don’t attempt to address. Love Your Brain, for example, is a TBI-focused charity that features meditation and yoga. Some TBI survivors don’t have the capacity to participate in such activities and may not be able to eat by themselves or even to move. Unmask the Invisible wants to be able to meet the needs of these individuals and their families by focusing on caregiving and rehabilitation, etc.
The development of programming for Unmask the Invisible began with a London researcher who interviewed 236 siblings of TBI survivors. These family members felt invisible. Unmask the Invisible has created educational programs for schools, hospitals, social workers, etc., explaining how better to interact with brain-injury survivors and caregivers. These programs include “The Sierra Project”— a home for programs that promote creativity and resiliency for traumatic brain injury survivors, their siblings, and their caregivers via art. Art has always been very important to Sierra Longmoore and was something she enjoys as part of her rehabilitation—a “paint it forward.”
Recently Unmask the Invisible sponsored a guided art event in Hanover entitled “This Is Your Brain on Art”—giving instruction on multiple phases of how to paint for survivors and their siblings. Unmask the Invisible has also collaborated with Dartmouth’s Thayer School of Engineering to develop weighted paintbrushes for survivors to use in their artwork. Up until this product was developed, only weighted pencils had been available on Amazon for handicap use.
"The Halo Fund," an early-stage venture capital group, has backed research into non-invasive TBI therapies such as the use of hyperbaric oxygen chambers, and Unmask the Invisible has developed a resource list bringing together all such newly developed treatments so that survivors and their families will not have to do the research that Amy had to undertake. At the present time, insurance doesn’t pay for these therapies,
Unmask the Invisible sponsors local retreats for caregivers while participating in numerous community charity events—the Prouty, a soccer fundraiser for players experiencing residual injuries, and a fundraiser (Chuckles for Charities) scheduled for November 16 in White River Junction. Amy has published a book entitled Unmask the Invisible, available on Amazon for $20, and Unmask the Invisible has merchandise such as a ballcap that they sell for fundraising at their events. Amy herself continually schedules speaking engagements.
Sierra was a junior when she suffered her injury, and as she entered her senior year, she needed special help from the school district through programming that had been originally designed to assist students who had been born with their special handicaps, not for trauma survivors. Shortcomings such as these are examples of what Unmask the Invisible is designed to address.
QUESTIONS FOR AMY
Ron Michaud asked if Unmask the Invisible has promoted any water therapy, such as the ocean therapy for autism that Dartmouth has researched. Amy noted that there is water therapy for TBI that Unmask the Invisible has supported and will investigate further.
Sierra is doing really well. Her success is all the more remarkable in that 99.9% of individuals who experience her level of trauma do not survive. That’s one of the reasons her family wants to “pay it forward.” Thirty-two states presently provide funding to support survivors of TBI. Sierra may be able to speak to our club sometime in the near future.
SPEAKER BOOK FOR KILTON LIBRARY
I Am Enough by Grace Byers (Author), Keturah A. Bobo (Illustrator)
#1 New York Times bestseller and Goodreads Choice Awards picture book winner.
This gorgeous, lyrical ode to loving who you are, respecting others, and being kind to one another comes from Empire actor and activist Grace Byers and talented newcomer artist Keturah A. Bobo.
We are all here for a purpose. We are more than enough. We just need to believe it.
HAPPY DOLLARS
Cal Wolfe reported that the Kenyan water storage project serving the students in the village of Nyandoche Ibere (site of Emmah’s Garden) is near completion.
President Ernst reported on the successful Mascoma River cleanup project held on Saturday, July 27. He praised Tim Guaraldi’s leadership in organizing the various cleanup crews and the necessary City support. Tim stated that about 50 volunteers were involved.
Jim Damren announced that the firm deadline for Brewfest ads for the brochure is now August 5. We had raised only $5-6,000 in advertising as of last week. This week, the figure stands at $11,000, but last year we had raised $13,000 in brochure advertising.
RAFFLE
Bill Babineau had the winning raffle ticket, but he drew the Ten of Spades from the deck.
Ron Michaud won the Jake’s Carwash drawing.
FUTURE MEETING PROGRAMS/SPEAKERS
August 8 Arianna Anton, RN, Nursing student from Colby Sawyer College, Trip to Morocco
August 8 Arianna Anton, RN, Nursing student from Colby Sawyer College, Trip to Morocco
August 15 Youth Service: Youth Exchange Participants share their experience
August 22 Ed Morris, Town Manager of Enfield
August 22 Ed Morris, Town Manager of Enfield